New Times and Fresh Beginnings
by RavenSara84
Summary: Continuing on from Fresh Start and Invite, Reno still works with Tifa at the bar and Kadaj is settling in, however things are about to get rather difficult for the two 'outcasts' when ShinRa is after one of them and getting the other would just be a bonus


Reno was slowly getting used to Kadaj being around 7th Heaven, he had heard that Tifa hadn't been happy with the situation, nor had Marlene who couldn't forget that Kadaj's brother, Loz, had kidnapped her with the other children. It was Denzel who made the two change their minds, he welcomed the silver haired teen, even though he knew who he was, he decided that this Kadaj couldn't do anything to them, not after Cloud had defeated him before.

Needless to say, Tifa had strong words to Cloud, until she learned of the situation that Kadaj had been in.

The Remnant was also getting used to the household, although when Cloud was away for long periods of time he became restless, to such an extent that Tifa was afraid that he would start a fight with one of her customers.

"Reno, can I ask a favour?" She asked as they were cleaning up for the night, he was sweeping the floor as she was checking the drinks levels.

"Sure, what's wrong?" He stopped and looked at her, she sounded wary, like she was afraid.

She looked up the stairs to make sure the kids were in bed; "It's about Kadaj…"

Reno nodded; he figured it would be; "Still restless?" He was the one who had to stop the teen from fighting anyone for no reason; he had been lucky so far, the teen did as he told him and went back upstairs to keep an eye on Denzel and Marlene.

"Yes, I think he needs to get out of here for a few nights," She looked him in the eye; "I know it's close to the new moon, but would you be able to take him away?"

_And it comes down to this_… He thought to himself; "Sure, he's asked to see my change anyway,"

Tifa didn't look so sure; "If Cloud was here it would be fine, but…"

"Relax, Kadaj can handle it," He said; _Besides I'm a lot stronger as a werewolf than I am right now, should he try anything, I could beat him._

"What can I handle?" The silver haired teen came down the stairs, wearing joggers and a baggy t-shirt, his hair messed up from sleep.

Reno grinned; "You're gonna come with me to the mountains,"

"You'll change?"

"Yup, you'll be fine on your own though, besides Cloud usually comes back that way from all his deliveries," Reno added, not bothering to mention that Cloud did that to make sure he hadn't done something stupid as a werewolf.

"Can't sleep?" Tifa asked him and he nodded.

"These nightmares… They always revolve around someone called Mother," Kadaj said and sat on a bar stool, Reno finished his sweeping and collected the dust to put in the bin before sitting down next to him while Tifa made them all a drink.

"What else happens?" Reno asked and Tifa raised an eyebrow in warning, as Kadaj sighed.

"I remember… Seph…" He shook his head and Tifa placed a glass of milk in front of him while Reno got a glass of whiskey.

"Don't try to remember, sometimes things are better forgotten," Tifa said gently.

"Yea but, I want to know who Mother is," Kadaj said and drank his glass, then he stood up; "It doesn't matter, night," He walked away, stopping in the kitchen to put the glass in the sink before going upstairs to his room.

"Why did you ask such a question?"

"Because, he's remembering," Reno said; "Though it's in his dreams, if he makes a connection then Cloud might have to kill him again,"

"Do you think ShinRa is causing this?"

"No," He shook his head; "Kadaj couldn't forget forever, sooner or later he would remember, when Cloud saw him again, he knew that he was the enemy, he got very defensive, but once Cloud admitted he was the black sheep, he calmed down,"

"Maybe…" Tifa was thinking against the idea of Kadaj going with Reno but the red head shook his finger at her.

"This will be good for him, trust me, he'll cause chaos here,"

"All right, but…" Tifa trailed off as Reno pushed the stools in and smiled.

"Don't worry; I'll pick him up tomorrow, all right?"

She nodded as he left, and then made her way to bed.

XXX

The next day Reno arrived to pick up Kadaj, who waited at the door of 7th Heaven; the red head pulled up in a van and Kadaj just looked at him.

"What? I normally travel by bike, but since you're coming along, I figured this way would be more comfortable," Reno told him as he got out; "Where's Tifa?"

"Gone to get food," Kadaj said; "Marlene and Danzel went with her,"

"Let's go, you can phone her to say I got you," Reno said, feeling the light tingles caress his skin, letting him know that he would be changing in the next 24 hours and put Kadaj's bag into the back.

Kadaj jumped in and they drove off towards the mountains in silence. Normally Reno didn't mind the quiet, his former partner Rude was quiet and somehow they balanced out, but with Kadaj it didn't have the same feeling.

"What's wrong?"

"I had another dream about Mother,"

_Damn_; Reno thought; "What happened this time?"

"Some man took her away. He hid her, and she couldn't get free,"

_Looks like this is getting further than we thought_, he thought and then spoke; "Say Kadaj, what do you remember of you r life before? I know you remember your brothers and Cloud, but…"

"Nothing… I…" He paused; "I remember I fought you and that other man, the one who got me out of ShinRa… I was always fighting Cloud too… Why? Why was I fighting brother?"

"Kadaj, I'll be honest, you wanted to kill us," Reno said bluntly and the other's mako eyes widened in surprise; "You thought we were hiding Mother, you wanted her back for a Reunion. A Reunion that would have destroyed the planet,"

"But it was Mother…."

"I know, but she's gone now. She hasn't been around for some time," Reno kept his eyes on the road ahead, not wanting to see the anger that was flooding those mako eyes.

"But… Mother, who… who killed her?" Kadaj demanded to know.

"No one, it's just… Her time to go," He didn't want to have to explain that it was Jenova's cells that were needed for the Reunion to come about; it would be too much for him to take.

"No…" He curled up on the seat and for a moment Reno thought he must be crying when his head snapped up and he glared at him; "Liar! It was you and those people who took Mother! You were keeping her from us!"

He skidded the van to a stop and looked at him; "No we weren't, only one man knew where she was and that was Rufus Shinra," Reno was a skilled liar, it was part of his old job, he was the one who took Jenova's head to his former boss, but he had no real clue where Rufus had put her after.

"He was your boss!"

"And why would he tell us?"

"Is this a trap? So that those people can take me back?" Kadaj snapped, ignoring the question; "So they can make me their lab rat again?"

Reno took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, normally things like this just rolled off him, but he could feel the wolf calling him demanding that this teen should be made an example of and his human side fought it off, for the moment.

"Kadaj, calm down. If I wanted you to be a lab rat why did I get Cloud to join me in freeing you?"

His words did calm the teen down, who took a deep breath; "Sorry,"

"All right, your past is just that, the past. No one is holding anything against you either, and look this is our stop," He got out of the van and Kadaj followed him as they picked up the bags and tent.

At first the teen thought they were in a desert, but then he noticed that they were actually next to a woodland area, where Reno obviously liked to roam when away from the city as a wolf.

"When will your change happen?" He asked, not wanting to think about ShinRa or Mother.

"I don't know," Reno replied, he never really knew when it would happen, but given that he had been agitated, he figured the change might very well happen in the next few hours.

"You don't?"

"No, I just know it's gonna happen soon," He didn't explain any more than that; "So, you still restless?"

"Reno, who is Mother?" Kadaj finally asked; "I have to know, why is she always haunting my dreams? It's like she's trying to tell me something,"

_I should have listened to Tifa_. Reno found a log and gestured for Kadaj to sit down next to him.

"Your mother is Jenova, the Calamity," He noticed that Kadaj was looking at him, wanting more; "She fell to earth, she was the messenger of death…." _Vincent is good at this kind of thing; _"When ShinRa found her, they put her cells to use. She wasn't alive anymore, so when ShinRa had the SOLDIER experiment up and running, all those SOLDIERs, including Cloud, were infused with her cells, hence the mako eyes. One SOLDIER, called Sephiroth, learned about how he came upon his strength and began to hate ShinRa for it, so much so that soon his hatred began to grow, not just for the company but for everyone on the planet,"

Kadaj listened in silence, it all made sense now, how he hated the people who had imprisoned him, the people of ShinRa and then when Cloud came to him, he suddenly felt hatred towards his black sheep of a brother. Was that why he felt like he couldn't settle? Was that why he was unable to live some kind of a normal life?

"Kadaj, I know it's hard to get over this, violence is all you know,"

"How could you know anything about it? I was born to be a fighter! Sephiroth is part of me, that's how I came into being wasn't it?"

"Yes and so is Jenova, but that doesn't matter. You manage to withhold your urges to fight, every time you wanted to hit someone who was hassling Tifa you kept threatening them and I had to get you away. You could easily have beaten me, you know that, but you didn't," Reno pointed out; "I know how it feels, I was one of ShinRa's people. I had to leave in case they made me some kind of experiment too; once I left I had no idea what to do. I got a job with to work in the bar, but I still have moments when I just want to fight,"

"There are times when I can't stand it, when I want to fight and it doesn't matter who's standing in my way, some stranger, you or even Tifa, but when Cloud is around he can tell and he takes me outside to the church to fight him instead," Kadaj stopped and noticed that Reno had curled up; "Reno…!"

His eye widened when he noticed that Reno's clothes ripped and red fur appeared all over his body, his fingers were now sharp claws and suddenly he jumped away and into the dense woodland area.

Although Kadaj wanted to follow, he refrained, deciding that Reno as a werewolf wasn't the type of person to be around, instead he focused on setting up his tent and then finding food and water as night began to fall.

XXX

It was two days later when the human Reno emerged from the woods, his bag had been placed by the edge of the woodland and he wasn't surprised to find Cloud sitting on the log next to Kadaj.

"Yo!" He waved over at them with a smile and the two looked at him, Kadaj was relieved that he was back to his human self, the transformation had kept playing in his head, which although better than having those nightmares about Mother, was still something he wasn't able to get his head around it.

"Tifa told me that Kadaj wanted out of the house," Cloud said as he looked over the red head carefully. He could see that he was perfectly fine, but the blonde still worried every time Reno changed, which was why he would always come back this way.

"Yea, we didn't get too much talking done," Reno stated with a smile and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's all right, I think I understand what you were talking about," Kadaj said and looked at him; "it's hard to change something that you have been brought up with,"

"We'll get there, just need to make sure we don't get too rusty either," Reno said and looked at the blonde; "Just in case,"

They all began to move, Reno and Kadaj headed towards the van once the tent and supplies had been packed up when Cloud caught the red heads arm.

"Rude has a message for you," He said softly, so that the teen couldn't hear them; "He said that it was a mistake to let Kadaj go,"

"What?"

"They weren't planning to make Kadaj the next Sephiroth, rather they were wanting him as an experiment…" Cloud paused; "They wanted to make him mindless and become a Turk, but also one of the most powerful. That was why it was so easy to free him; Tseng wanted Kadaj out of the way and knew we would do it,"

"Well if the Turks…"

"Reno, the Turks have been ordered to find Kadaj. They are taking their time about it, but soon word will spread that he is with us,"

"Man, this kid really can't catch a break," Reno sighed; "I'll figure something out…"

"We just need you to get inside the Turks heads, you know them best, you can figure out what they might be planning. I'm not letting Kadaj go so easily,"

"The best thing would be to get him out of the city," Reno stated; "Tseng can get them to drag their feet, but ShinRa will get impatient, if Kadaj is out of the city the Turks won't have any real leads,"

"Kadaj could never come back," Cloud countered and he nodded.

"The only thing left is to destroy ShinRa," Reno said and looked surprised; "Never thought I would be saying that,"

"No," Cloud smiled slightly; "I never thought I would hear you say that either. The first thing we need to do is get Kadaj out of the city,"

"But where to take him?" Reno asked he had no idea where a safe place would be.

"I remember someone saying that Turks have loads of homes…" Cloud looked over at him and Reno smiled.

"Yea, we do. But the rent doesn't last; the last place was far away… We'll need to tell him though,"

"Can he stay with you tonight?"

"Eh, sure, I have no problems with that, but what do I tell him?"

"The truth," Cloud stated; "We can't lie about this, he needs to know what's at stake,"

Reno shrugged and walked to the van, feeling a weight being place on him that he couldn't shrug off like he normally would.

Kadaj looked at him, his mako eyes questioning him.

"You're staying with me tonight," Reno said as he put his seat belt on.

"What? Why?" Kadaj asked, wondering if something happened at the bar.

"ShinRa is looking for you," Reno started the engine and Kadaj glared straight ahead.

"We should fight them,"

"No, the Turks that are looking for you are dragging their feet… for the moment, with Rufus ShinRa it can only last for so long until real action takes place," Reno said with a sigh; "I should have known this would have happened,"

"Why do they want me? Can they really want another Sephiroth?"

"No, ShinRa wants you to become a mindless drone," He left out the bit about being part of the Turks; there was no point in telling him that.

The teen clenched his hands, remaining silent as they drove on, while Cloud went straight on they turned left and then stopped at a block of flats.

"I don't want to run," Kadaj stated as Reno turned off the engine.

"I know, neither do I," He looked around and narrowed his eyes; "Damn it, looks like we can't stay here,"

"What?" The teen asked but suddenly gun shots were being fired in their direction.

Reno turned the engine back on and drove away, he soon left Edge city and they were back in the desert; "Damn it! Tseng could only let them slow down for so long,"

"Reno, the Turks were after me. They knew we would…" Kadaj said as he glared at the older man who shook his head.

"No, they knew I would have some kind of contact with you, they _knew_ I wouldn't be home, we can't keep driving for long…" He pulled to a stop back at the woodland area and brought out his phone, dialing the number; "Yo, Cloud, we have a problem… No he's fine… They were at my place. We're not safe in Edge city. No. No. No,"

Kadaj wondered what could be making the man say 'no' so often and why he was tense, every time he saw him; he was normally so casual and relaxed.

"Stay there, Tifa and the kids will need you. I think… I think you might need to call in someone, like Vincent or even Cid. Well we can't keep camping out… Vincent would be the better choice. Gut feeling. Hey!" Reno smiled; "I'll call ya later to tell you how we are yo," He hung up and looked at Kadaj; "Well, Cloud is going to get us a favour from Vincent,"

"Vincent?" Kadaj remembered a few of Cloud's friends, but he didn't know their names.

"Red cloak, dark hair, doesn't speak much," Reno said and Kadaj remembered him.

"He's the one who got Cloud away from me and my brothers!"

"Yea, well, we might be staying with him… hopefully," Reno looked up at the sun; "If not, we might need to get either Cid or Barry… Personally I would rather have Vincent,"

"Would they accept me?" Kadaj asked quietly.

"I don't think Vincent would mind, anyone can see that you have changed, Cid probably would have forgotten you… Barry… Well he can hold a grudge and I think he'll be out for me more than you," Reno said as he phone rang, he didn't recognise the number as he answered it; "Hello?" He looked tense and then relaxed; "Yea, we need a favour man, Kadaj and I need a place to hide… No, he's not the same and ShinRa is after us. I can explain that when we meet. You don't even stay in the same place! Oh come on… I get that… I know that… Vincent do you honestly think Cloud would ask such a thing on my behalf?" There was silence at the other end before a reply; "Good, we'll wait at the Forgotten City then," He hung up and started the engine; "This is going to be fun,"

The red head grinned at the teen as he started the car and drove to the crystal like forest, where Kadaj remembered certain things about his past, how he and his two brothers collected the children with the stigma and brought them all here.

He felt nervous about meeting Vincent; their first meeting was him trying to kill Cloud and the man saving him from the three remnants. If what he had heard on Reno's side of the phone conversation was right, Vincent didn't believe that he had changed.


End file.
